The Air Hockey World Championship brackets have been announced in Las Vegas, and the first-round is underway as of 4:30 p.m. The USAA is streaming the matches live at airhockeyworld.com.

The 65-man bracket has Jason Cornell as the 54 seed and Jeff Huisman the 56. They will be matched up against the 11th and 9th seeds, respectively.

A live chatroom is also up and running, so get in there and support the local air hockey dudes. Cornell's opponend is a left-handed 57-year-old air hockey veteran with two national championships under his belt.

Cincinnati’s hometown-hero air hockey players are safe and sound in Las Vegas, preparing for Saturday’s first round of the Air Hockey World Championships.

Jason Cornell and Jeff Huisman left Cincinnati at 3 a.m. Friday to catch their 6:45 a.m. flight, then enjoyed breakfast with Huisman’s parents in Las Vegas, who flew in from Seattle to celebrate Mom’s birthday.

After breakfast they checked out the tables and competition area at the Riviera Hotel and Casino, running into USAA President Michael Rosen, who said he will introduce the competition’s only participants from Ohio during the opening ceremony.

The CityBeat-endorsed air hockey duo of Jason Cornell and and Jeff Huisman had to put their dreams on the back burner this week, as real life interfered with their World Championship aspirations. You may recall last week’s “Air Hockey Blog — The Injury,” when Huisman dropped a bombshell, admitting that recent rumors were true regarding his wrist injuries pending surgery. This, just a couple weeks before the biggest professional match of his career, seemed to be a devastating blow to his chances. But the Feb. 26 procedure was successful, according to Huisman, who expects to be ready to compete two weeks from today.

Well, this is it. The aspiring Air Hockey World Champion's blog. Seriously. Air hockey.

Why air hockey? As Jason points out in the Air Hockey Blog intro, he kicked my ass at Pop-A-Shot on a regular basis and I got tired of it. I challenged him to a game of air hockey ... and let me tell you, our lives changed. Air Hockey is an incredible game of strategy, skill, power and geometry? Yes ... geometry. Knowing the angles helps win games. Hitting your angles ... that's a little harder.

Seven long months ago, I was what many in the office would consider an urban legend. I was the self-proclaimed Dave and Busters “Pop-A-Shot” king. Unbeaten in more than 20 straight head-to-head matches, I managed to frustrate my fellow co-workers with my Larry Bird-like skills. This, of course, led to a lot of bragging and maybe just a little inflation of my head. Ultimately, this discomfort in defeat had my fellow cohorts in a scramble to find something they could beat me at. And they finally found one — a sport in which quick reflexes, precision angle shots and diligent goal defense are the trademarks of a weathered veteran. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Air Hockey.